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Will carbon capture clean up tar sands?

ARE tar sands becoming a bit cleaner? For the first time, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant is going to lock away some of the carbon dioxide produced by refining the dirty oil. However, the oil will still lead to more emissions than conventional crude oil.

Tar sands contain bitumen, which is difficult to extract and must then be processed to produce crude. This means tar sands release about 17 per cent more greenhouse-gas emissions overall than conventional oil (Environmental Research Letters, doi.org/cs56qs).